Fact check: Is the disability support pension a 'set and forget' payment?

The Abbott Government has introduced new rules for people under 35 who receive the disability support pension, and is considering other changes.

Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews told Sydney radio station 2GB on July 4: "The DSP for decades now has been a 'set and forget' payment. Once people are on it we've basically said 'well, you're on it and we'll forget all about you'."

Mr Andrews said there were increasing cases of "episodic illness where people are capable of working maybe for a few weeks and not for some time - we don't take that into account at all in the present system".

ABC Fact Check takes a look whether people are put on the disability pension and forgotten, irrespective of their long-term ability to work.

The claim: Kevin Andrews says the disability support pension is a 'set and forget' payment.

The verdict: For some recipients, the disability pension could be a 'set and forget' payment, but there is also evidence to suggest some people are not reviewed because they have a long-term disability and cannot work. There's more to the story.

What is the disability support pension?

The disability support pension is paid to people with a physical, intellectual or psychiatric condition that stops them from working or who are permanently blind.

To qualify, a person must be deemed unable to work 15 hours or more per week for the next two years. It is paid to people aged 16 and over, up to the qualifying age for the age pension.

The system does not make a distinction between a permanent disability (like quadriplegia) and a non-permanent disability (for example, anxiety).

Peter Davidson from the Australian Council of Social Service says that's because when the disability support pension was introduced as a replacement for the invalid pension in 1997, the government wanted to avoid "writing people off".

"'Permanent' was replaced by 'at least two years' to facilitate more accurate assessments and avoid writing people off," Mr Davidson told Fact Check.

Who gets the payment?

According to a report published by the Department of Social Services in January, 821,738 people were on the disability pension in June 2013, down from 827,460 in June 2012.

The report says over 127,000 claims were processed in the year to June 2013, of which around 55,000 were successful and around 72,000 were rejected.

People were most commonly knocked back because their medical condition had not been fully diagnosed and treated or their impairment was below the government's threshold.

Over the past decade mental illness has become the number one reason people are receiving the disability pension. In 2013 more than 30 per cent of recipients suffered from psychiatric and psychological conditions.

About a quarter of recipients suffered from 'muscular' diseases such as arthritis, joint pain and chronic pain, while people with intellectual disabilities and learning difficulties made up 12 per cent.

A spokeswoman for Mr Andrews told Fact Check more than half the people currently on the disability pension have been on an income support payment for more than 10 years.

Why do people stop getting the payment?

The report says 56,836 people stopped receiving the disability pension in the year to June 2013, less than 7 per cent of the 827,460 people who were receiving it in June 2012.

Subsequent status of those who leave the disability pension

Number

Age pension

35,231

Deaths

12,262

Non client

8,306

Newstart or Youth Allowance

608

Carer Payment

316

Parenting Payment

76

Other income support payment

37

TOTAL

56,836

More than half of those, 35,231, were transferred to the age pension and 12,262 died.

The remaining 9,343 represented just 1.1 per cent of the people who were receiving the disability pension in June 2012.

Of those, 8,306 moved off welfare payments altogether, 608 moved on to unemployment benefits and 429 moved on to other income support payments.

Are there regular reviews?

Professor Roger Wilkins from the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research says there are reviews under the current system, but they don't often result in people losing their pension.

"Periodic reviews of disability and work capacity are built into the benefit, but in practice these rarely result in someone being taken off it," he says. "It is considerably more likely a recipient will die while on the DSP than return to work."

Professor Peter Whiteford from the Australian National University agrees people seem to stay on the disability pension for a long time.

"But is that because they are forgotten about, or because they have a disability?" he asks.

The Department of Human Services says recipients of the disability pension must advise the department of changes in their circumstances.

"We do regular reviews to make sure that you continue to be eligible for payments and that your rate of payment is correct," the department's website says.

The Department of Human Services declined to provide Fact Check with further details about the review process.

How do the reviews work?

A spokeswoman for the Department of Social Services told Fact Check that recipients may be subject to review as part of a random sample survey. "People may be asked to provide a report from their treating doctor, which includes information about their medical condition," she said.

Due to confidentiality laws, a doctor cannot provide information to the department without the patient's consent.

While recipients may be reviewed, it is possible that some people with severe disabilities may not be reviewed for long periods, even 10 or 20 years.

"A person with a severe disability who meets manifest eligibility criteria and does not have any change in their circumstances may not be reviewed," the spokeswoman said.

Craig Wallace from Disability Australia told Fact Check he believed many people on the disability pension were routinely reviewed.

"There is not the level of intrusion or interference that recipients of Newstart encounter, and nor should there be if there is no prospect of them being able to work," Mr Wallace said.

The department's spokeswoman told Fact Check that medical reviews are not undertaken more than once in a two year period.

It is unclear whether people with mental illness or "episodic" disability are routinely checked.

Growth of the disability support pension

In 2010 the former Labor government announced tighter eligibility conditions for the disability pension. This was in part because the number of people receiving it had grown significantly since the mid 1990s.

A Parliamentary Library report found the number had grown by 43 per cent from 1997 to 2009 and "no other income support program has seen this level of sustained increase".

An article in the Australian Economic Review co-authored by Professor Wilkins, published in September 2013, argues some people are shifting on to the disability pension because of its increased relative 'generosity' when compared to other welfare payments, in particular the Newstart unemployment allowance.

"More important in terms of driving DSP growth have been reforms to other income-support payments, such as increased conditionality for [Newstart] and Parenting Payment and closure of some payment types to new entrants, together with the increased relative 'generosity' of DSP," the article says.

It says population growth, an ageing population (as older people are more likely to be unable to work from a disability), and a rise in the pension age for women also account for growth in the number of people receiving the disability pension.

The article concludes that "despite a consistently strong Australian labour market over the last decade or more and despite a series of reforms aimed at tightening eligibility requirements for the DSP, the DSP roll has resumed its upward trajectory following what now appears to have been a brief pause in the mid 2000s".

Work requirements for recipients under 35

On July 1 the Government brought in new requirements for recipients under 35 to participate in compulsory activities aimed at assisting them finding work.

Those deemed unable to work at all are not required to participate. The changes only apply if someone is assessed to have a working capacity of eight hours or more a week.

Compulsory activities include things like work experience and training.

A spokeswoman for Mr Andrews said the changes "mark the end of DSP as a set and forget payment for recipients under 35 years of age with an assessed work capacity of 8 hours or more".

Overhaul of the welfare system

The Government commissioned a review of the welfare system in late 2013. In June, an interim report was published recommending the disability pension should be reserved for people with a permanent disability and no capacity for work.

Those with a current or future capacity for work could qualify for a recommended new "tiered working age payment", which would take into account their individual circumstances.

The report says: "To align Disability Support Pension with contemporary disability policy the payment needs to better differentiate between permanent and temporary incapacity".

"At present the definition of permanent incapacity used to assess eligibility for Disability Support Pension relies on a disability persisting for two years. This definition is outmoded as it disregards modern advances in working with people with disability to improve their employment capacity".

It says people with episodic mental conditions "with appropriate interventions and flexible participation requirements can be supported in ways that enable them to gain and maintain ongoing employment".

But ACOSS's Peter Davidson warns "people with mental illness have a much lower probability of employment than people with physical disabilities".

"It's harder for them to secure employment, mainly because employers don't want them if the illness is disclosed."

He argues that in some ways it's better for employers if a person's illness is predictable, not episodic. "The idea that it's going to be easy to assist many people with severe mental illness into jobs is not realistic."

Professor Andrew Podger, from the Australian National University, says there is a view that it should be harder to get onto the disability pension and "you should only get on the pension if you were never going to get off it".

The bottom line

Experts Fact Check spoke with said there are concerns that some people on the disability pension never get reviewed.

The Department of Human Services, which administers the system, wouldn't provide detailed information on how often it conducts reviews, whether there is a process for reviewing recipients with episodic disability or how many people on the disability pension are reviewed each year.

People with severe disability are reviewed only after long periods, sometimes 10 or 20 years. Some people are randomly reviewed. Others advise the authorities when their circumstances change. It is unclear whether people with "episodic" disability or mental illness are routinely checked. At most their cases are reviewed every two years.

The statistics show that apart from those who were transferred to the age pension and those who died, just 1.1 per cent of people stopped receiving the disability pension in the year to June 2013.

The verdict

Mr Andrews can say that for some recipients, the disability support pension could be a 'set and forget' payment, but there is also evidence to suggest some people are not reviewed because they have a long-term disability and cannot work.

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